On Wed, 30 Jul 2003 14:16:43 +0100, Samantha Osborne
wrote:

I've got some 3/4 inch long green beasties with a yellow
stripe down their backs which might be caterpillars eating
all my veggies in the garden. They have even gotten into
the house and started on the parsley!

I've picked off all the ones I can find and have taken as
many blighted tomatoes off their stalks with beasties
inside but what can I do to stop them? I'm quite new
to all this and probably would not have recognised the
eggs if I had seen them. I was handed a bottle of
pesticide at Wyevale but it is only suitable for tomatoes
and the beasties will eat anything.

I still have one uninfested runner bean plant. Any suggestions
about keeping this beastie-free?

Cheers
Sam


Sounds like caterpillars to me. In the short run, keep picking them off. It
depends on your philosophy, but a lot of people here seem against
pesticides (like I unless things are getting very serious). If you want to
do that, catch a couple of the critters and take them down to the pesticide
shop and see what they suggest.

That may work in the short run but you'd do better in the long term to
encourage goodies to the garden. Hang up a bird feeder (a simple net with
nuts will do for a start) to encourage birds like sparrows into the garden
especially the veggie patch - this time of year they have babies to feed
and they need all the animal proteins they can get, like caterpillars and
greenfly.
Tim.